Cosplay

The cosplay contest allows talented designers to showcase their abilities at creating and modeling costumes based on characters from video games, anime, manga, sci-fi shows and movies, or Japanese culture. Everyone, from novices to experienced designer, is welcomed to enter. Costumes will be pre-judged before the contest event, during which each contestant will be presented on the main stage. After all contestants have been presented the winners will be announced and given their prizes.

• Youth – Contestants 12 and Under.
• Novice – Contestants with no more than one win at a costume contest.
• Intermediate – A contestant who has won between 2-4 costume awards.
• Advanced – Contestants that have won four or more awards.

Winners will be selected from each division as well as Judges’ awards, Best Prop, and Best in Show.

Read the full contest rules here.

To register for the cosplay contest, click here.

Judges:

Sarah Bloom is an experienced cosplayer was was also a judge for Swampcon last year. She has been cosplaying for 6 years and sewing since she was 8 years old. She has won 2 official awards for her cosplay of Noel for Blazblue (shown here) Sarah has also judged other cosplay contests at EXPCon and organized Realmscon 2011.

Dev Cosplay, a serious cosplayer, is also organizer of Swampcon’s 2012 and 2013 cosplay contests. Winning has multiple awards of her own and recently featured in the international magazine Cosmode the Nation vol. 1 she has a lot experience with the cosplay world. Dev has been seriously cosplaying for 3 years, some of her more notable cosplays are Red Cape Cardcaptor Sakura, Shiro from Deadman Wonderland and Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. (shown here)

Cristine Peña’s love for video games and anime led her to the cosplay community in 2005. Also known as “Kapalaka,” she is a veteran cosplayer from Florida who has earned 4 “Best in Show” trophies and several smaller awards. She enjoys spreading the fun of cosplay and shares her craftsmanship knowledge through panels and online tutorials. Most of her skills are self-taught and her strengths lie in technical sewing, wig crafting, and armor/prop making.